By Raji Sharma, Associate Researcher at Includovate
The Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns have had a devastating effect on communities and economies throughout the world. Exacerbating existing inequalities, the pandemic has exposed unique challenges that require joint efforts by governments, development practitioners and civil society actors. One such impact is the spike in child marriage globally. As economies shut down and nations went into lockdowns, child marriage cases saw an unprecedented rise, followed by teenaged pregnancies, and school dropouts.
With all the efforts and attempts to end child, early, and forced marriage, the pandemic has threatened to undo all of the advancements and developments that have taken place during the last decade. It has been reported that the pandemic has threatened to reverse 25 years of progress on child marriage due to increased economic destitution and the closures of educational institutions.
Although 100 million girls were at risk of child marriage before the Covid-19 outbreak, Covid-19 has made the situation even worse. Save The Children, in its Global Girlhood Report, warned of 2020 being a year of “irreversible setbacks and lost progress” for girls, predicting that an additional 2.5 million girls around the world were at risk of child marriage in the next five years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, while up to 1 million were expected to become pregnant in 2020. Apart from missing out on attending school, these children will also miss out on receiving life-saving, comprehensive sex education, putting girls at a higher risk of child marriage and unwanted pregnancies.
Here we look at 5 ways that Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdowns have led to a significant increase in the number of girls being married off as children:
Closure of schools:
We know that girls’ education is crucially important to keeping girls from getting married as children. As many as 10 million girls have been put at risk of child marriage due to school closures caused by Covid-19, putting under threat the progress made in the last decade by averting 25 million child marriages. Without the safety net and friend and support systems provided by schools, girls are being forced into early marriage. In India’s Telangana region, child marriages have increased by 27% since the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. This increase stems primarily from poorer families where the parents opted to marry off their female children and force their male children into labour.
Barriers to accessing healthcare services:
Pandemic-related travel restrictions, physical distancing and an increase in unpaid care work has made it difficult for many girls and young women around the world to access the health care, social services and community support that protect them from child marriage, maternal mortality and morbidity, unwanted pregnancy, and gender-based violence (GBV). In developing countries especially, the Covid-19 pandemic has created significant additional pressure on underdeveloped health and social service delivery systems, and exacerbated vulnerabilities among populations. Focus on the access and availability of adolescent and youth friendly sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and GBV services has significantly reduced. This is compounded by increased domestic violence, school dropouts, and closures of healthcare units leading to a lack of SRHR knowledge and information during the Covid-19 lockdown. As a result, an increase in the number of child marriages and teenaged pregnancies becomes inevitable.
Economic scarcity
While the Covid-19 pandemic has crippled the global economy, the children, especially girls, in poor families have faced a direct impact. With job losses and increased economic scarcity, millions of families have considered child marriage to alleviate poverty.
Lack of alternatives and opportunities:
Child marriage becomes a plausible option for families when productive alternatives are not available for girls. This is all the more true for traditional societies with a social preference for sons and a resultant lower social standing for girls, which means that marriage is seen as the only viable option for girls, while boys are encouraged to aim for jobs or other income-generating options. For instance, lack of mobility, education or employment opportunities mean that families prefer to marry off their daughters early to have one mouth less to feed. In communities where the custom of ‘bride price’ is prevalent, child marriages prove to be a boon to a household’s income as a price is paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s family. The United Nations Population Fund’s, State of World Population Report 2020, observed that child marriages have been found to increase during humanitarian crises caused by natural disasters or conflicts. In Lebanon, 41% of women displaced by the Syrian war were found to be married before they turned 18.
Weakened law enforcement:
Internationally recognised as a form of gender-based violence, child marriage saw a significant increase during the Covid-19 pandemic as the pandemic inhibited enforcement of the legal minimum age for marriage. During nation-wide lockdowns, child marriage became more common due to the absence or non-enforcement of child marriage laws. This meant that even in cases where the perpetrators were arrested, often the courts were closed due to Covid protocols and the perpetrators could not be presented in Court or penalised.
Child marriage has always been common phenomenon. But ever since the pandemic hit, the risk of child marriage has intensified for millions of girls across the globe, threatening their childhood and future prospects. While efforts are being made to curb the spread of the virus, a lack of social protection has meant that girls and young women from vulnerable populations have been exposed to the social evil called ‘child marriage’.
To address this, accelerated efforts are needed if we are to reverse this trend. The focus should be on eradicating child marriage by addressing harmful social norms that perpetuate gender inequality. For instance, a few critical steps to postpone marriage beyond the legal age, improve the health and nutritional status of girls through better access to sexual and reproductive health information, support girls in their transition to secondary school, and help them develop skills can help them realize their full potential and live long and fulfilling lives.